CSExtra – Friday, November 9, 2012

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Friday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from around the world. The post U. S. election period prompts a renewed call for a White House level space council and visions of affordable human missions beyond the International Space Station. Russia will address a reorganization of Roscosmos, the country’s federal space agency. New studies suggest a global warming trend will continue throughout the 21st century. Clever astronomers rack up ingenious techniques for identifying alien worlds. Britain’s fictional James Bond and U. S. strides in space seem to find success together.

1. From Space News: It’s time to re-establish a White House level National Space Council to coordinate activities among U. S. civilian and military space agencies, suggests a former member of the National Security Space Office. The most recent space council was disbanded in 1993 as then President George H. W. Bush left office. The post cold war version of the organization would also be led by the vice president, suggests Nicolas Eftimiades.

A. From Wired.com: A look at a possible destination for astronauts beyond the International Space Station. L2, a gravitationally stable orbital destination just beyond the moon, is gaining renewed interest among some cost constrained planners, who see L2 activities lending experience for and opening doors to missions to more distant destinations, explains space historian David Portree.

B. From Discovery.com: Engineers evaluate the use of deployable rotors to guide future human space capsules to a landing over land rather than water. This old idea is getting a new look, the website reports.

2. From Spacepolicyonline.com: On Nov. 26, Russia’s deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin will host a conference on a restructuring of Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency. In late 2011, then Russian prime minister Vladmir Putin placed Rogozin in charge of studying focused on restructuring. One possible transformation is as a public corporation.

A. From Ria Novosti: The Nov. 26 session comes in the midst of a Kremlin power struggle. Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, a member of now President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, has been sacked.

3. From The Washington Post: Satellite data suggest the Earth is on a warming trend through the end of the century. The gloomiest predictions may be the most accurate, suggest researchers from the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

A. From The Los Angeles Times: 2012, the warmest year in U.S. history, is serving as a wakeup call with a record Arctic ice melt, a drought induced rise in grain crops and Hurricane Sandy, writes Bill McKibben, founder of a global climate action campaign.

4. From Discovery.com: How are astronomers identifying the growing numbers of exo-planets? Observatories like NASA’s Kepler space telescope and the transit method afford but one method in a growing arsenal of techniques. Math and physics play an important role in each.

5. From Space.com: Skyfall, the latest feature in the half century old James Bond feature film arc opens Friday. Like its popular predecessors, Skyfall includes elements of advances in space exploration.

Brought to you by the Coalition for Space Exploration, CSExtra is a daily compilation of space industry news selected from hundreds of online media resources. The Coalition is not the author or reporter of any of the stories appearing in CSExtra and does not control and is not responsible for the content of any of these stories. The content available through CSExtra contains links to other websites and domains which are wholly independent of the Coalition, and the Coalition makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or authenticity of the information contained in any such site or domain and does not pre-screen or approve any content. The Coalition does not endorse or receive any type of compensation from the included media outlets and is not responsible or liable in any way for any content of CSExtra or for any loss, damage or injury incurred as a result of any content appearing in CSExtra. For information on the Coalition, visit www.space.com or contact us via e-mail at Info@space.com.

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